10 Strategies to Improve Patient Compliance with Medication

1

• Patients with chronic conditions and complex drug
  regimens are at especially high risk of not
  taking the medications they need to successfully
  treat their conditions. And, as former US
  Surgeon General Everett Koop once reminded
  doctors, patients, and pharmacists, "drugs don't
  work on patients who don't take them."
• Non-compliance with a medication regimen is
  widely recognized as one of the main reasons for
  treatment failures, serious adverse reactions and
  even deaths. In addition to poor patient
  outcomes, nonadherence to Medication Management
  Services can lead to hospital readmissions and
  costly treatments that increase subsequent
  healthcare costs.
• The following are ten strategies that providers
  can use to boost medication adherence.
• Understand the medication-taking behaviors of
  each patient
• Ask patients if they are having trouble filling,
  taking, or paying for their medications. For
  example, ask 'Of the medications you have been
  prescribed, which ones are you taking?' o 'I
  know it must be hard to take all your medicines
  regularly. How often do you miss taking them?
  Create a blame-free environment so patients feel
  comfortable talking openly and honestly.
  Providers cannot help their patients if they do
  not know there is a problem.
• Talk about side effects
• Patients who experience side effects are less
  likely to stop taking the drug when they know
  about possible side effects in advance. Providers
  must discuss these side effects and explain how
  to prevent an adverse drug reaction. What is the
  likelihood of those side effects, do they usually
  resolve without intervention, and how will the
  treatment plan change if they do not resolve? Ask
  patients to repeat the most important points and
  empower patients to ask questions.
• Write it down

2

• Many patients do not retain verbal instructions,
  so it is important to write down the
  information. For example, provide medication
  calendars, pill cards, schedules, or charts that
  specify when and how to take medications.
• Collaborate with patients
• What time of day would be best for the patient to
  take their medications? If the medication does
  not come with specific instructions (ie, take one
  pill in the morning), brainstorm with the
  patient. Ideally, it would be a time when the
  patient knows that she will generally be free
  from other commitments and distractions.
• For example, if the mornings are chaotic when it
  comes to dropping the children off at daycare,
  perhaps the night is a better option so they
  don't forget each other.
• Consider the financial burden to the patient
• If patients cannot afford their drugs, they can
  simply stop taking them or they can ration them.
  To combat this, providers can connect patients
  with pharmaceutical company-based assistance
  plans, state-based assistance plans, and
  pharmacies that provide 30-day supplies of
  widely prescribed drugs. Some EHRs also include
  formulary information that helps providers
  determine if certain drugs are covered under the
  patient's insurance. It is also helpful to
  prescribe low-cost generic drugs.
• Assess health literacy
• Health literacy, the degree to which people can
  obtain, process and understand basic health
  information and services, is a social determinant
  of health that can greatly affect patient
  compliance with medication. Use this AHRQ tool to
  assess health literacy and determine appropriate
  interventions so patients understand when, how,
  and why to take their medications. Providers
  should not assume that patients understand.
• Reduce complexity
• Reducing the complexity of the medication regimen
  increases the likelihood that patients will
  continue to take their medications correctly.
  Providing bundled

3

• products, for example, is one way to do this.
  Another is to prescribe drugs with a daily dose
  instead of multiple doses per day.
• Follow-up of patients
• Send medication reminders by text, email or
  direct mail or during the time allotted for
  chronic care management services. Also, schedule
  follow-up appointments to discuss medication
  compliance. Don't let patients fall through the
  cracks. Make sure they understand why they need
  to take their medications as prescribed, even
  when they don't have symptoms.
• Involve community pharmacists
• Pharmacists can not only provide patient
  education and help them navigate
• low-cost or even free medications, but they can
  also remind physicians to contact patients who
  do not refill their prescriptions, helping
  providers address compliance issues before they
  get out of hand.
• Use technology
• For example, electronic pill medication devices
  (eg, automatic pill dispensers, pillboxes and
  timers, and alarm clocks) can help improve
  patient compliance with medication. SOZO Centers
  can even send providers a remote control message
  every time the patient opens the pill box. This
  provides Clinical depression treatment with
  information that they can use to detect adherence
  problems.
• These strategies can help providers help their
  patients adhere to medication regimens. Barriers
  to medication compliance will always exist what
  matters is how providers address them using a
  variety of methods.